Page:Clifton Johnson - What They Say in New England.pdf/31

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The Weather  29


If Candlemas day be fair and bright,
Winter will take another flight;
If chance to fall a shower of rain,
Winter will not come again.

If Candlemas Day be bright and clear,
Be sure you will have two winters that year.

If Candlemas Day be fair and clear,
All old men wish their wives on the bier.

This savage rhyme must have descended from very ancient times. The idea is, that when the old man found the second of February clear, and remembered that this meant there was still hard winter weather ahead, he wished his wife dead because of the trouble it would be to support her.

On Candlemas Day
Half the wood and half the hay.

The old farmer at this time takes a critical survcy of his woodpile and hay-mow; and if there is not in them half what there was at the beginning of winter, he lays plans for their replenishing before the opening of the new season.